Sigh. Another Christmas at the ranch with many relatives I have nothing in common with. I suppose that's typical. They all asked me if I lift weights. One woman asked me if I was going to be a doctor, and I was like "yeah, but not a medical doctor" and she started to go on and on about some celebrity doctor guy, and asking "have you heard of him?" I'm like "no, but I'm not going to be a medical doctor." She's like "oh but he's a chiropractor...blah blah blah". I just listened - what was I going to say?
Dinner wasn't that fun...
My uncle (the one who writes letters to the newspaper about how global warming is a conspiracy) asked me how I KNOW that the Sierra Nevada lakes were historically fishless. Put on the spot like that, I'm like "I just know..." and he's like "HAhahaHAhah". I was thinking about it later and I could come up with a ton of evidence (fossil record, geology and hydrology, native american historical records, the fact that stocked fish do not produce a viable population in the long-term, frogs and other insects that were once everywhere cannot survive in the presence of trout, etc.), but putting me on the spot like that, and asking me a question that I liken to "how do you KNOW the world is round" I came up empty handed. If I were writing it in a paper I think it would be classified as "common knowledge" and not need a citation. This is good practice for...talking to people who are...ignorant? In the moment though, it totally frosts my cookies. I can appreciate an honest question, but not ones that seem specifically designed to elicit condescending laughter for the benefit of the asker.
Glory glory hallelujah, praise baby jesus that my dad has this little Verizon portable wireless thingie so I can connect to the internet. I know it's sad that without the interwebs I'm completely bored, but to be fair it is dumping rain outside, so cut me some slack. I did bring my rain pants and rain shell though, so maybe I'll walk around in the mud and cow shit later. I hope his Verizon thingie doesn't charge by the minute...
Fortunately it did not dump rain yesterday afternoon, so I had some time to find a bunch of mushrooms. Pictures will be coming.
I might go visit Ethan in SF tomorrow on the way home. If I'm not going to climb at Jailhouse Monday or Tuesday, I may as well get a good workout at MC. Plus I haven't seen him since before he went to China. Should be fun to hang out and hear about the trip. I'm looking at plane tickets for Europe right now...I'd like to meet up with people for a month or so in the Spring. Maybe even 6 weeks! If not, I'll take another trip. I'd really like to go to Greece.
The clock just struck 10. My grandma (and my aunts and uncles) all have this clock on the wall that pipes a song on the hour, every hour. And yay! There's a Christmas setting! I don't think that I would like knowing when each hour of my life passes while I'm sitting in my house. Kind of grim.
So, now just an interminable afternoon of looking outside at the rain, a dinner, more present opening (always awkward), and then I'm bailing tomorrow.
By the way, this is for James. Enjoy your Chinese turkey!
Merry Christmas and stuff to everyone!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Things I've been thinking about
I keep turning things over in my head that I've been meaning to write about, so before I forget I'll just go ahead and jot them down:
1) the beauty of the rant. Ranting is awesome. I love to rant. I also love to hear other people rant (of course, when it's violent and/or hateful, that's no fun), especially if it's a passionate funny rant. This guy at Jailhouse named Craig is a world-class ranter - he gets so passionate about it. Whenever I start to hear him rant I try to get closer so I can listen to the rant. Fortunately whenever he's at the crag I can always count on one or two juicy rants. It's good.
2) You can look at the behavior of individual people the way you can observe animal behavior. There are patterns - you can observe risk, reward, and past behavior and make damn good predictions. However I'm never surprised when I'm surprised.
3) baking. I've sent a crap-load of cookies out this year. It's fun to get feedback. People love getting stuff in the mail! I like to think that I brightened someone's day. Plus I've gotten to try a bunch of new recipes, many of which are quite good...some of which I wouldn't make again.
4) I get so excited when I get a batch of sequences back from Davis sequencing that I drop everything and run to the lab to have a look at them. It's awesome! You get a ton of data at once, and you know what you are going to have to do next. At this point it's looking like I'll be learning some new techniques for getting sequence data. Kind of cool and kind of annoying.
5) I'm worried that I might get scooped by the guy I'm trying to scoop for the project I'm collecting data for (see 4). He has the title of a paper and "in revision" on his website...hmmm...I already told my advisor that I feel bad for spending so much money (a couple thousand already...and I haven't even collected a fraction of the data), but he said he didn't care.
6) my parents are coming. My mom sent me an email where she laid out ever detail of their visit and exactly what I'll be doing as well. Lauren and John say that this is what old people do. Plan shit.
7) Surprisingly, I've been going out a lot lately. Thursday was happy hour for Bjorn's birthday, Friday was Jailhouse, Friday night was a Japanese fry party at Lisa and Bjorn's house (lots of panko), Saturday was lots of lab work, Sunday was a gym session with Jake and dinner at Lauren and John's. Winter is good for that.
1) the beauty of the rant. Ranting is awesome. I love to rant. I also love to hear other people rant (of course, when it's violent and/or hateful, that's no fun), especially if it's a passionate funny rant. This guy at Jailhouse named Craig is a world-class ranter - he gets so passionate about it. Whenever I start to hear him rant I try to get closer so I can listen to the rant. Fortunately whenever he's at the crag I can always count on one or two juicy rants. It's good.
2) You can look at the behavior of individual people the way you can observe animal behavior. There are patterns - you can observe risk, reward, and past behavior and make damn good predictions. However I'm never surprised when I'm surprised.
3) baking. I've sent a crap-load of cookies out this year. It's fun to get feedback. People love getting stuff in the mail! I like to think that I brightened someone's day. Plus I've gotten to try a bunch of new recipes, many of which are quite good...some of which I wouldn't make again.
4) I get so excited when I get a batch of sequences back from Davis sequencing that I drop everything and run to the lab to have a look at them. It's awesome! You get a ton of data at once, and you know what you are going to have to do next. At this point it's looking like I'll be learning some new techniques for getting sequence data. Kind of cool and kind of annoying.
5) I'm worried that I might get scooped by the guy I'm trying to scoop for the project I'm collecting data for (see 4). He has the title of a paper and "in revision" on his website...hmmm...I already told my advisor that I feel bad for spending so much money (a couple thousand already...and I haven't even collected a fraction of the data), but he said he didn't care.
6) my parents are coming. My mom sent me an email where she laid out ever detail of their visit and exactly what I'll be doing as well. Lauren and John say that this is what old people do. Plan shit.
7) Surprisingly, I've been going out a lot lately. Thursday was happy hour for Bjorn's birthday, Friday was Jailhouse, Friday night was a Japanese fry party at Lisa and Bjorn's house (lots of panko), Saturday was lots of lab work, Sunday was a gym session with Jake and dinner at Lauren and John's. Winter is good for that.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Ugh. rain.
Day 3 of interminable rain. Going stir crazy. Went to the gym today...
Stuff. Blah blah blah, then more stuff.
No end to the rain in the 10 day forecast.
Stuff. Blah blah blah, then more stuff.
No end to the rain in the 10 day forecast.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Why James is awesome.
It's raining here, so I'm lab-bound and gym-bound for a while. Add this to the many hours of darkness every day and you get a more angst-y version of me. Scary thought, no?
I was talking with my friend James today about trying hard. Six years ago today he fell while free-soloing in Joshua Tree.
James climbs a lot. He aspires to do things that are very hard for him, and he gets them done. James isn't the most physically talented rock climber (most of us aren't talented - it's rare to be truly talented I think, so I don't feel like this is insulting), but he still accomplishes very impressive goals. I'm a lot more impressed with people like James who face great odds (he's put together with pins now!) and accomplish goals than I am with people who find things easy. Stubbornness levels the playing field: James has climbed more hard shit than most people who are naturally talented. He has more tenacity than anybody I've ever met.
James is inspiring to me. I'm not a talented rock climber by any stretch of the imagination. I actually have to try, and I definitely get scared, and bored, and give up on things. If I don't pay attention, I put on weight, I get weak, and I have to work hard. At this point, I'm less interested in what I could do if I were actually talented, and more interested in what I could accomplish if I were more like James. James is rad.
That said, I have worked hard this fall. After 2 days on a route called Cell Block, I think I could send it within a few tries. This route felt completely impossible to me a few years ago.
I feel stronger than I've ever been before, and more mellow about climbing in general. I'm hoping to send some stuff before the balance shifts more towards suck, as it inevitably will. And I hope it stops raining!!!
I was talking with my friend James today about trying hard. Six years ago today he fell while free-soloing in Joshua Tree.
James climbs a lot. He aspires to do things that are very hard for him, and he gets them done. James isn't the most physically talented rock climber (most of us aren't talented - it's rare to be truly talented I think, so I don't feel like this is insulting), but he still accomplishes very impressive goals. I'm a lot more impressed with people like James who face great odds (he's put together with pins now!) and accomplish goals than I am with people who find things easy. Stubbornness levels the playing field: James has climbed more hard shit than most people who are naturally talented. He has more tenacity than anybody I've ever met.
James is inspiring to me. I'm not a talented rock climber by any stretch of the imagination. I actually have to try, and I definitely get scared, and bored, and give up on things. If I don't pay attention, I put on weight, I get weak, and I have to work hard. At this point, I'm less interested in what I could do if I were actually talented, and more interested in what I could accomplish if I were more like James. James is rad.
That said, I have worked hard this fall. After 2 days on a route called Cell Block, I think I could send it within a few tries. This route felt completely impossible to me a few years ago.
I feel stronger than I've ever been before, and more mellow about climbing in general. I'm hoping to send some stuff before the balance shifts more towards suck, as it inevitably will. And I hope it stops raining!!!
Friday, December 17, 2010
I find this very interesting
How impulse control relates to prosperity.
There is a LOT of information packed into this piece. Of course when I think about impulse control, I think about the people I know, and who is good at it and who is not and how that relates to their life. But this perspective can be broadened to think about nations and culture, and the relationship between impulse control and wealth.
It circles back to an idea that I've been pondering lately that is inspired by basic behavioral ecology: The decision to do something is also the decision NOT to do something else. The decision to spend your life climbing is also the decision to not, for example, go to college. Or to not stay in one place and cultivate meaningful relationships. Ultimately my decision to go to graduate school was, in some ways, the decision to not depend on climbing for overall happiness. It is not sustainable for me - the gain in climbing harder doesn't make up for what I would have to give up.
I think it's a decision that most obsessive climbers come to in the end, whether because they are not good enough to make it a profession, or because they don't want to limit their lives to such a narrow focus. I've seen a lot more depression/struggling in people with the former scenario.
By the way, this guy is so so smart. And so productive with his writing and blogging. It's really impressive.
There is a LOT of information packed into this piece. Of course when I think about impulse control, I think about the people I know, and who is good at it and who is not and how that relates to their life. But this perspective can be broadened to think about nations and culture, and the relationship between impulse control and wealth.
It circles back to an idea that I've been pondering lately that is inspired by basic behavioral ecology: The decision to do something is also the decision NOT to do something else. The decision to spend your life climbing is also the decision to not, for example, go to college. Or to not stay in one place and cultivate meaningful relationships. Ultimately my decision to go to graduate school was, in some ways, the decision to not depend on climbing for overall happiness. It is not sustainable for me - the gain in climbing harder doesn't make up for what I would have to give up.
I think it's a decision that most obsessive climbers come to in the end, whether because they are not good enough to make it a profession, or because they don't want to limit their lives to such a narrow focus. I've seen a lot more depression/struggling in people with the former scenario.
By the way, this guy is so so smart. And so productive with his writing and blogging. It's really impressive.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
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